Buy Tip: Why You Should Lend Through CapitalStackers

There are very few P2P lending sites that have given me the feeling of 100% honesty and openness that we at 4thWay also aim for, but I certainly feel that from CapitalStackers.

Jumping through hoops

For a P2P lending site to get listed on 4thWay, it needs to go through a very time-consuming process, involving long forms, email Q&As, phone meetings, sometimes in-person interviews and then some more email Q&As. They also have to provide over 100 data points of information.

As usual, we spent a huge amount of time dissecting information from CapitalStackers and had several meetings to discuss the people, processes, business and the data they supplied.

CapitalStackers* does property loans, including property development loans and properties that are earning rent.

You can read an expert review of CapitalStackers, which contains key facts and figures and a 4thWay expert's summary views. But I just wanted to give my view too, mostly because development lending is not so easily measured in numbers and therefore opinions and quality assessments matter even more.

Before reading further, note that the minimum you can lend in a single loan is £5,000. Just so I don't waste your time if you're looking to lend small amounts.

It's about the people

CapitalStackers does not have the website with the best design or smoothest features. It's the people themselves who impress the most – and it's the people who are most important.

Combining straight-forward, down-to-Earth honesty, skills and experience, I think you can't find better than Steve Robson and his team at CapitalStackers.

CEO Steve Robson, in addition to decades of relevant experience, also has another project set up: a business with software to help measure risk in property opportunities. These risk-based analytics are far too rare in development lending and this was the case even before P2P lending was invented. So these kinds of analyses put CapitalStackers ahead of the pack.

Having reviewed an example of the analysis “CapStack” does on a loan opportunity, it is impressive. You can see where the analytical risk-assessment side meets experience.

In direct support of Robson, Tony Goldrick also has decades of experience in property lending. And Sylvia Bowden is a qualified surveyor. Even so, CapitalStackers still always has the property assessments carried out by independent assessors.

Overall, I believe they are a highly professional and very experienced team and have seen a lot to back this up. For example, some P2P lending sites doing development loans, in my opinion, focus too much on the land and property security and not enough on other important factors. I don't feel that concern here.

Great interest rates

While it is all about the people, those people also have to set fair interest rates for us lenders.

In the case of CapitalStackers, I think interest rates are very attractive. Yes, the sorts of loans they are doing are not the lowest risk types of loans and that's something you need to understand. But even taking that into account, I think rates of 8% to 20% are generous at this opportunity.

Watch that you spread your money around

At present CapitalStackers has few opportunities, alas. Please remember to spread your money across lots of loans and lots of different P2P lending sites.

Visit CapitalStackers*.

Independent opinion: 4thWay will help you to identify your options and narrow down your choices. We suggest what you could do, but we won't tell you what to do or where to lend; the decision is yours. We are responsible for the accuracy and quality of the information we provide, but not for any decision you make based on it. The material is for general information and education purposes only.

We are not financial, legal or tax advisors, which means that we don't offer advice or recommendations based on your circumstances and goals.

The opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and not held by 4thWay. 4thWay is not regulated by ESMA or the FCA. All the specialists and researchers who conduct research and write articles for 4thWay are subject to 4thWay's Editorial Code of Practice. For more, please see 4thWay's terms and conditions.

*Commission, fees and impartial research: our service is free to you. 4thWay shows dozens of P2P lending accounts in our accurate comparison tables and we add new ones as they make it through our listing process. We receive compensation from CapitalStackers and other P2P lending companies not mentioned above either when you click through from our website and open accounts with them, or to cover the costs of conducting our calculated stress tests and ratings assessments. We vigorously ensure that this doesn't affect our editorial independence. Read How we earn money fairly with your help.